a. [OE. waterléas = Du. waterloos, OHG. waʓʓerlôs (mod.G. wasserlos); see WATER sb. and -LESS.] Destitute of water; containing no water; unsupplied with water.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xi. 24. Per loca inaquosa, ðerh stowa wæterleasa.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxxvii. 24. [Hiʓ] dydon hine on ðone wæter-leasan pytt.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4156. In þis wast i wat a pite, Dri and waterles es it.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cvi. 35. He set … in out-gang of watres land water-les [L. sine aqua].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 180. A monk, whan he is recchelees Is likned til a fissh þat is waterlees.
c. 1400. Sege Jerusalem (E.E.T.S.), 44. Þoȝ ȝe waterles wede, wynne ȝe noȝt o droppe.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xii. And shortly þe houndes vnclene holde and vnclene kept, or longe waterles, hath communlych þe maniewe.
1526. Tindale, Luke xi. 24. When the vnclene sprete is gone out of a man, he walketh through waterlesse places sekynge reest.
1577. T. Kendall, Flowers Epigr., 42 b. Can seas be waterles and drie? can hilles be dales without?
1643. Trapp, Gen. l. 21. To requite your kindness, that consulted to starve me, in the waterless pit.
1828. Duppa, Trav. Italy, etc., 176. Here and there a little waterless fountain completes the design.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., lix. (1901), II. 140. A half-buttered muffin mounts a waterless slop-basin; a dirty egg accompanies sone toasted wedges of bread.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 18. Through this seventy miles of waterless country.
1902. Times, 24 Nov., 5/2. The long waterless marches are beginning to have their effect upon the camels.
b. Waterless pit: in the 17th c. often fig. with allusion to Zech. ix. 11.
1616. J. B., Serm., 25. And they will deliuer thy soule … from the water-lesse pits.
1675. T. Brooks, Golden Key, Wks. 1867, V. 350. The Babylonish captivity … was that waterless pit,… out of which they were delivered by virtue of the blood of the covenant.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 197. The prison of this waterless or comfortless pit.
Hence Waterlessness.
1888. Sat. Rev., 10 Nov., 563/1. His preconceived opinion of the waterlessness of this country.
